The great thing about the work that you put into your landscaping is that it pays you back many times over. Not only does it improve the curb appeal of your home, but it also allows you to create the perfect outdoor spaces for you and your family’s enjoyment.
How can you get the most out of your landscaping efforts and enjoyment throughout the whole calendar year? There’s no reason that your 2021 landscaping can’t start New Year’s Day! By taking care of the things that you can during the cold winter months and using the time to plan, you’ll get the new year’s new landscaping off on its best foot!
If you’re like us, you probably come up with two or three new ideas for what you’d like to do every time you put in the work to cross an item off your landscaping to-do list. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing—by using all 12 months on the calendar, you can make more of your ideas become realities while preserving the time to enjoy the benefits of your efforts.
New Year’s Resolutions for Landscaping You’ll Love For everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn, turn). If you want to get the most out of your landscaping in the new year, you’ll get started on day one. That way – when the weather breaks – you’ll have a plan and be 100% ready to execute it.
Resolution #1 – ReviewUnless you’ve just moved into a new home or have never done anything beyond mowing the lawn to manage your home’s landscaping, you’ve got all of last year to go off of when you’re planning what to do this year. Spend some time getting the ideas that you had throughout the year onto a list. Spend some time reviewing what did and didn’t work for you last year. Taking the time to get everything out on the table will help you out a lot when it comes time for making project-specific plans, scheduling, and budgeting for your 2020 landscaping. Be honest with yourself about what you will and won’t have the time and budget to accomplish. Move the items that promise the most return for your investment to the top of the list.
Resolution #2 – ResetEven during the winter months, there will be days when you can get out of the house and enjoy a little fresh air. These are great opportunities to put in some work that will prep your landscaping for spring projects.
Using late winter’s warmer days to begin clearing boxes, beds, and gardens of last year’s dead foliage is always a good plan. You can take it a step further by moving hardscape accessories to an indoor work area for cleaning or repainting. You might even want to start measuring and marking the space you’ve selected for a big spring project.
Resolution #3 – RepairThere’s nothing worse than heading out on the first warm spring day, excited to get started on a landscaping project that you’ve thought about all winter, only to find that you’ve got to spend a whole day fixing or replacing equipment that spent the winter leaning in the corner of the shed.
We spend a lot of time during the colder months hanging out in the barn with a football game on the radio. We service the power equipment. We clean all of the gardening and landscaping tools that got put away dirty at some point during the previous fall. We make a list of parts that we’ll need for repairs that we can do ourselves.
Resolution #4 – ReplaceOnce we’ve gone through the tools and equipment that we use at our house, we usually have a list of items that we just can’t nurse through another year and that we can’t repair ourselves. On a good year, the list is mostly seed trays and small hand tools. Some years the list includes power tools like weed eaters or leaf blowers.
No matter how much equipment you used last year, chances are good that you’ll need all of it again this year. Making sure that it’s all ready to go for the new year before you budget new projects will make sure that you don’t end up overspending due to the need to replace broken or worn-out items.
Resolution #5 – ResearchAt this point, you’ve done quite a bit to get yourself set up for a stellar year of outdoor projects. You’ve made a wish-list based on what has worked and what hasn’t. You’ve prepped your outdoor areas for spring as much as the weather has permitted. You’ve got all of your equipment lined-up for another year of projects.
When we get to this point, we really dig into the planning, scheduling, and budgeting for our new landscaping in the new year. There is a lot that you can do yourself by researching on the internet or pulling your gardening library off of the shelf. This is also a good time to reach out to the professionals who can advise you on projects that will stretch your know-how. Our research typically looks at each of the big three questions that we need to answer before we decide if a project is going to go on our to-do list for this year or stay on the wish list until next year.
Can we do it ourselves? We really enjoy the feeling of tackling a big project on our own, but not everyone has the room in their schedule or the desire to take the DIY approach. If you’re doing a project yourself then you’ll need to start putting together a list of supplies and materials. If you’re going to leave it to the pros, then you need to start looking for a professional landscaper who can make it happen for you.
How do we schedule the project? The scheduling of a project depends on whether you’re handling it yourself or having professional landscapers do the work for you. If you need to get a professional scheduled, it’s better to find someone and get your project on their schedule early. The best landscapers in your area will run out of room on their calendar early.
How much do we want to spend on this project? Sometimes, when you’ve put together a list of all the materials and supplies that you’ll need to do a project yourself, you realize that you’re not saving very much money with the DIY approach. More than once, we’ve moved a project from the DIY list and let the professionals handle it for us because once all of the planning was done, it just didn’t make sense for us to do it ourselves.
Ready to Get Started?You don’t have to wait until New Year’s Day to get started with the resolutions that we’ve discussed here. For us, it’s a great way to start the clock ticking on our landscaping activities for the upcoming year but you can definitely get started right away if you’re anxious to get to work. For Expert Advice on Professional Landscaping in the Uinta, Lincoln, Sublette, and Sweetwater Counties, Call Cowboy Curbing & Landscape! The landscaping experts at Cowboy Curbing & Landscape are happy to offer advice on your plans for the upcoming year. Call them today to get some great tips and tricks on how to get better results with all of your landscaping projects in Southwest Wyoming. You can also fill out the online Request a Consultation form and ask them to schedule a visit to your property so that you can work together on pricing and scheduling a project.
Call today: (307) 316-5353 to speak to one of their landscaping experts. You can also visit them on www.cowboycurbing.com.